Clinical impact of GB-C virus in haemodialysis patients.
BACKGROUND
Haemodialysis patients run a high risk of acquiring viral hepatitis B (HBV) or C (HCV) infection. Recently a new parenterally transmittable RNA virus, designated GBV-C, was isolated.


METHODS
We therefore screened 266 patients on maintenance dialysis and 358 blood donors as a control group for GBV-C by nested PCR and correlated the data with AST, ALT, duration of dialysis, transfusions, renal transplants and coinfections with HBV and HCV.


RESULTS
The prevalence of GBV-C among haemodialysis patients was 7.9%, and 3.6% among blood donors. Neither duration of dialysis nor number of blood transfusions were associated with GBV-C infection, whereas GBV-C-positive patients were significantly more often transplanted than GBV-C-negative individuals. Transaminases of GBV-C-positive individuals remained within normal limits in all haemodialysis patients and normal in all infected blood donors. Coinfections of GBV-C with HBV and HCV were only present in 0.7% and 1% respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
We conclude that GBV-C virus infection is frequent among haemodialysis patients. Transaminases cannot serve as surrogate markers, and parenteral as well as community-acquired infection seems to be possible.
Kallinowski
B
B
Department of Internal Medicine IV, University of Heidelberg, Germany.
Ahmadi
R
R
Seipp
S
S
Bommer
J
J
Stremmel
W
W
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000410:Alanine Transaminase / Q000097:blood; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D005260:Female; D018067:Flaviviridae; D006525:Hepatitis, Viral, Human / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D015995:Prevalence; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000032:analysis; D006435:Renal Dialysis / Q000009:adverse effects*
D012367:RNA, Viral; D000410:Alanine Transaminase